Traffic Alert: Here's One Freeway To Avoid This Weekend

Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.

TxDOT is shutting down the westbound side of the Baytown East Freeway, that's I-10, at Waco Street, starting at 9 o'clock tonight. The westbound closure will last until 5 o'clock Monday morning. The department's Danny Perez says crews have to finish the repairs they started on the Waco Street overpass.

"The bridge was struck last month by an over-height 18 wheeler. So they have to go back in there and repair it. They had done some temporary repairs, but they want to go in there and do something more permanent."

Westbound I-10 drivers will have to exit at Waco, take the frontage road, and they'll be able to get back on immediately after Waco. Perez says it would be better if drivers could avoid the area altogether.

"We're asking people maybe to take an alternate route. If they're traveling, for instance, from the Channelview area, or the North Shore area, trying to get to Katy, for instance, or trying to get to downtown, they can use 610, or they can bypass that entire area, to get around the closure."

Waco Street, itself, will be closed during repairs. Gregg and Lockwood are the alternates to cross over I-10. And one lane of the eastbound side of I-10 will also be shut down, but only tomorrow, to give crews more room to work.

Perez says everything should be out of the way and back to normal in time for the Monday morning rush.